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7950 fan issue

daveyb

daveyb

daveyb

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Joined
10 Nov 2016
Posts
124
Location
Sunderland
hey all, bought a used 7950 for a good price to replace a 6850. came today, stuck it in and played a few games and it worked fine until it hit a random shutdown in GTAO. then i noticed only 1 of 2 fans is spinning up, with the one closest to the ports not spinning up. if i ramp the fans up to 100% in MSI afterburner it kicks in and has the card at a cool 30c but if i drop the speed down below 80% it then shuts off again. I've done a few hours of searching on it and found results ranging from being a dead/clogged up fan, crimson driver issues, only kicking in when it gets so hot etc etc. It runs fine on desktop/browsing/etc but with games I don't want to run anything because judging from the last shutdown the VRM's are getting way too hot.

its the sapphire 3gb dual-x card, this variant:

14-202-026-06.jpg


gonna whip to wilkos in the morning, get some compressed air and give it a good clean out plus oil the fans so im hoping that solves it, just wondering if anyone else has had an issue like this and can give some advice? cheers.
 
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If it was me, I would inform the seller that you are having issues, and ask them if they mind if you whip off the cooler to give it a good clean and check the fan connection.

Or... If there are no warranty stickers etc, then you could probably just do it anyway.

How cheap are we talking? I mean, if its silly cheap, then you could bodge a cooling solution yourself easy enough, if not then just send it back I guess.
 
£60 used. enough to give me a good improvement in games and not be a substantial hit to the wallet.

whipped off the heatsink, and gave it a good dust out, pulled off the fan blades and oiled it all up and the same problem persists. it looks like it uses a splitter to connect the 2 fans to one port so ill probably pop the fan off again tomorrow and hook just the faulty one up directly and see if it persists. it does spin for a second or two at boot before going off and spins at 100% fan speed which leads me to think the fans either one its way out or not getting enough power.

guess i could just break out the cable ties and some 120mm fans and be done with it :p
 
That doesnt seam like a stand out deal, I would just send it back tbh

But yes, cable tying some fans on is a viable plan tbh

EDIT - you could swap the fans on the splitter, then you will know if its a problem with the fan, or the signal going to the fan, but seriously, I'd just send it back
 
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well it was more like £35 when you add in what i made back selling off my old card. if i send it back now ill have no gpu until i can get a new one and id rather see if its a problem with the fan and if so just zip tie two 120mms on it like this guy did with an R9 280X.

https://imgur.com/a/w49Lm
 
Fans do fail and there's a chance the guy wasn't a heavy gamer so didn't notice. Most cases mount the GPUs with the fans facing towards the bottom of the case.

If the bearing is old and worn it may be a little sticky, with the higher voltage being enough to overcome the resistance.

If you're not too worried about aesthetics and the card appears to work fine once both fans are running, I'd remove the fan shroud and secure a couple of big fans to it. I'm about to do the same to my old 7970 to make it silent ready for my HTPC.
 
That'll work.

But some guy has mugged you off selling his faulty crap at fully working order prices... I wouldn't stand for that tbh

But your right that if it goes through a PayPal claim, then its going to take time for you to get your money for sure. but £60 is pretty much top dollar for a used 7950 as far as I'm concerned, and I wouldn't accept a broken one.
 
image.jpg

who needs a heatsink shroud anyway :P did about two hours of furmark max temp was 70c. idle 30.
 
aye i chucked some as5 on it lastnight so thats all good. changed the black fan on it to a matching NZXT one then did the GTAV benchmark and the max temp was 56c and way way way quiter than stock. pretty happy with it :)
 
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